Monday, March 28, 2016

After lengthy discussions and explorations of different units of measurement regarding length, weight/mass, and capacity, we began to try to convert units of measurement. Ex. How many yards are in 18 feet?

To do this in an organized way, we used our handy T-chart. As we practiced several conversions, the children began to see the multiplication and division relationship. Because we still sometimes get confused about when to multiply or divide to get our answers, we are still going to start with the T-chart so that our rule is more obvious. Then we may move to a higher-level operation than simply listing. Some children are still more comfortable listing than multiplying or dividing, but are making larger jumps to help them be more efficient.

We made our "Big G" to help us see the relationship between units of capacity.

Friday, March 4, 2016

Today we discussed inherited traits and learned characteristics. Inherited traits are things we have/can do when we're born. Learned characteristics are those things we had to learn to do. We looked at a list of things a macaw is able to do, and determined if they were
learned or inherited behaviors. Then we looked at lots of different pictures of
various things (child rolling her tongue, color of a goldfish, freckles, ability
to play an instrument) to make the distinction between inherited and learned.

About Me

Rebecca May

I'm a wife, mother of two, and 4th grade teacher who is totally in love with her job! I teach math and science to roughly 40 kids a year. I've tried to model my classroom after this quote by Elliot Eisner - "When the joy is in the journey, the journey will be pursued." I feel very fortunate to work in an amazing school district, where it is commonplace to push students to their full potential and settle for nothing less. I truly feel blessed!!